Turriff United 3 - 3 Aberdeen

Aberdeen U20s drew 3-3 this evening in an entertaining game against Highland League side Turriff United. In the second half Paul Sheerin fielded virtually a U17 side and they produced a fine comeback. There are four young trialists with the Dons at the moment and three of them were on show this evening. Right back Ryan Harrington has come from Everton whilst midfielder Jack Breen was at Hibs and fellow midfielder Jack Allan was with Dundee United U17s last season.

There was some nice football played by both sides in the first half but there were few chances as both teams cancelled each other out. The Dons best chance actually fell to Antoniazzi in the opening minute after some neat passes but he fired over after the ball had been laid into his path about 20 yards out. The Dons quick movement troubled Turriff early on but to their credit the homesters got to grips with the game and took the lead on 12 minutes when Archie Mair saved a powerful shot from MacKenzie but spilled it and David Booth bundled the ball home.
Right back Harrington, who impressed in the air, was unlucky with a header from a free kick which almost crept in - keeper Main then did very well to push the ball to safety as a couple of Aberdeen players looked certain to score. The keeper then made another fine stop when from point blank range he kept out Hutchison who got on the end of a Wells cross.

Virtually an entire new side came out for the second half - only three outfield players stayed on. Despite the average age of the side dropping considerably the young Dons scored within a minute of the restart. Midfielder Jack Chessor played in Dean Campbell who produced a brilliant finish from 30 yards, placing the ball low into the corner.
Turriff then exploited their height advantage with two fine headers in quick succession. From a corner Miller headed past Mair and then substitute Wozniak produced a fine header from a free kick.
At that point it looked as if it was game over but the Aberdeen youngsters showed good fighting spirit and they were rewarded when just after the hour mark Sam Robertson took advantage of a mistake by the keeper when he steered the ball home from the edge of the area. With 15 minutes to go the impressive winger Nathan Meres did well down the right and his low cross was hammered home by Ethan Ross. Aberdeen could then have won the game when Meres again put over a great cross but left back MacKenzie saw his shot deflected into the side netting.

It was very competitive for a pre-season game in the closing stages as both teams went for the win but in the end a draw was probably a fair reflection of the evening's action.